ALAMO – Crockett County High School head football coach Kevin Ward hasn't exactly built his career on building programs, but he knows how it's done.

After working at Westview under head coach Don Coady for about a decade, Ward went to Camden and built it into a perennial district favorite that's good for eight to 10 wins in the regular season.

Ward's about to begin his fourth season at Crockett County, and while the Cavaliers weren't exactly a down-trodden team when he arrived, the program had hit a lull. While he wouldn't say he's led Crockett County out of the doldrums, expectations are growing seemingly by leaps and bounds each year.

"I guess we're expected to do something because of potential, but potential never won a playoff game," Ward said. "And neither have we since I've been here.

"But we have some good players that have the capability to do some things we haven't done yet – one of those beating really good teams."

Injuries hurt the Cavaliers immensely last year and kept them from beating some of the better teams on their schedule like Dyersburg and Milan. At the end of the season they competed well with Westview but lost on a last-second field goal before falling a week later again to Dyersburg in the first round of the playoffs.

The Cavaliers have plenty of athletes back to make a run for the District 13-AA title. Cade Parlow will run things under center, and he has Johnny Jones back at running back who has potential to score every time he takes a handoff. Dachaun Pickens is an athlete who gained a lot of all-purpose yardage in 2013, and Tyler Wise is a tailback that got a lot of carries when Jones was hurt last year.

"We've got potential to be good, but we've got to apply that potential and do something with it," Ward said.

Brandon Shields, 425-9751

Crockett Co. Cavaliers

• 2013 record: 7-4

• Four of Crockett County's non-district games are against other Class 4A teams they could possibly see again in the playoffs: Bolivar, South Side, Haywood and Lexington.

• The Cavaliers started 2013 strong by outscoring their first two opponents by a combined score of 109-6.